1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic exposure control apparatus used for an electronic image sensing apparatus, e.g., an electronic still camera or a video camera, using a solid-state image sensing element such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device).
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a camera using a silver chloride film, an electronic still camera using an electronic image sensing means such as a solid-state image sensing element, or a video movie camera, has been equipped with a system for automatically controlling exposure.
In such an automatic exposure system, a photometric sensor is generally arranged in a camera main body so that an aperture and an exposure time are controlled in accordance with a detection result from the sensor.
In the above-described automatic exposure system, however, since the photometric sensor is arranged in the camera main body, it is difficult to reduce the size of the camera. In addition, since a position where a subject image is focused is different from a position where the photometric sensor is attached, the light amount of a subject image to be actually sensed differs from a light amount metered by the photometric sensor. For this reason, proper exposure control cannot always be performed.
In the above automatic exposure system, accurate metering of the light amount of a portion of a subject to be photographed is difficult to perform. If, therefore, the subject includes a very bright portion, it is difficult to perform exposure control to sense only the bright portion or other portions with proper exposure value.